


An Old Fashioned Dame

by BuckyBearBarnes



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Oblivious Steve, Oblivious darcy, Pre-Relationship, Steve still can't dance, meddling Bucky, or talk to women, pin up Darcy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 13:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3852697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckyBearBarnes/pseuds/BuckyBearBarnes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Darcy slowly fall for each other, but things just don't exactly go smoothly for them and Bucky gets fed up with their stupidity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Old Fashioned Dame

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, this is the first thing I've written in a long time so it might be kinda rough but I hope you enjoy it! I may end up expanding this into a series, so if you'd be interested in that, let me know :D

From the first day he met her, Steve was captivated by the mouthy brunette that worked down in the labs. While he usually didn’t have much reason to go down there, he found himself wandering down those halls much more often in hopes of seeing her again, not that he’d ever admit it. Nor would he admit that her supple curves and pouty red lips reminded him of the pin up girls he used to draw for Bucky back in the days. While he had started to adjust to modern times, he still couldn’t understand how any man would choose a stick figure over a beautiful dame like Darcy. Hell, even Thor ended up falling for Dr. Foster and as much as Steve liked the absent minded scientist, he just couldn’t see himself falling for her with Darcy around. Of course, Thor would’ve pounded his head in with his hammer if he so much as considered making a move on Jane, but that was beside the point.  
None of this really matter much anyway because even with Dr. Erskine’s serum, he was still terrible with women; he couldn’t understand them and unlike Bucky, he seemed incapable of asking a girl on a date. So he resorted to small excuses to go down to the labs where he might have a chance of bumping into her. Today it turned out that Ms. Potts needed Dr. Foster’s latest expense reports and rather than relying on Tony, she asked him to get them since he happened to be in the same room.  
“Dr. Foster?” he knocked on the lab door.  
“Let me guess, Pepper needs the expense report for this month?” Darcy spun around in her chair.  
“Good guess” he smiled at her.  
“I’ll print it up for you right now” she flashed a grin back at him that nearly stopped his heart.  
“Thanks Darce.”  
“No worries Steve” she handed him the report and he paused awkwardly in the doorway before heading back upstairs. Little did Steve know, she was just as reluctant to see him leave as he was to go.  
When Darcy was still young, her parents had died in a car accident and ever since then her grandma had raised her. Her nana Lewis wasn’t a typical grandma though; she was a strong southern woman who raised her granddaughter to be a proper lady. Darcy had also learned to appreciate the value of a good vinyl record and swing dancing, something that continued to stick with her. So when Steve Rogers showed up in Stark Tower, it made her feel a little homesick for her Nana’s plantation house back in Atlanta. As she got to know him a bit better, she found herself slowly falling for him. Taking care of Jane, the days tended to blend together sometimes, especially when Thor was gone, but the short moments when Steve came down to the lab were her favorite moments. Being a political science intern in a tower full of superheroes and geniuses, it was easy to feel small sometimes, but Steve was one of the only people that never made her feel unimportant.  
Just then, the alarm she set went off, reminding both her and Jane to get some food and sleep.  
“Come on Janey, time for all the good little scientists to get some sleep” she steered Jane away from the computer, handing her a poptart to distract her. Thankfully, she managed to get Jane upstairs and in her suite without too much difficultly and quietly snuck out once she was asleep. Despite what she told Jane, she had no intentions of going to sleep though. Instead, she was planning on going to a new swing club that just opened in the West Village. Rolling her hair up into victory curls, she slipped into her red dress and comfy heels. Rather than borrowing one of Stark’s cars, she walked down to the corner of the street and called a cab; she knew he wouldn’t mind, but swing dancing was her one escape and she didn’t want to share it with anyone, at least not yet.  
Twirling around the dance floor, she felt herself truly unwind for the first time in weeks. Closing her eyes, she pretended she was back home spinning around on the wood floors in Nana’s house. Unfortunately, she was a little closer to the bar than she realized and spun herself into a man at the bar.  
“You alright there dollface?” he asked her in a thick Brooklyn accent, his hands steadying her.  
“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that ace” Darcy looked up. “Bucky!? What’re you doing here?” Ignoring the fact that he lived through the 40’s, she honestly did not expect to find Bucky anywhere near here.  
“I could ask you the same thing cookie” he grinned at her.  
“Wait, is Steve here too?” she suddenly realized.  
“Hot damn! Darce, is that you?” his voice came from behind her, answering her question.  
“She’s a real hotsy-totsy, ain’t she Stevie?”  
“Sure is Buck.”  
“So what are you fellas doing here?”  
”This fuddy-duddy over here needed to ease up a bit” Bucky answered. “He’s still a bit of a dead hoofer though.”  
”Why don’t we show this wise guy a thing or two Steve?” With that, Darcy pulled him out onto the floor and they slowly danced around the room, losing track of time. They probably would’ve continued dancing all night, if not for Bucky.  
“Hey lovebirds!” he called from across the room. “You plan on heading out sometime this century?”  
“Shut it, you jerk” Steve yelled back.  
“As much as I hate to say it, he’s probably right, but we should definitely do this again sometime” she smiled up at him. “At this rate you’ll be able to dance circles around Bucky in no time” she teased.  
“I don’t know about that, but thanks doll.” Wrapping an arm around her, they walked back to Stark Tower with Bucky a few feet ahead of them. “So where’d you learn to dance like that Darce?”  
“My nana- she raised me after my parents died in a car accident and in some ways it was kinda like growing up in the 40’s so in some sense it’s as much home to me as it is to you.”  
“It was kinda like that for me and Buck too- my momma was a nurse and one day she caught tuberculosis from one of the patients and he’s been like a mother hen ever since.”  
“You getting sappy on me, punk?” Bucky called back.  
“Beat it, you nosy jerk!” Once they were in the elevator, Bucky got off on the floor he shared with Steve, but Steve showed no signs of moving anytime soon.  
“You know you don’t have to walk me to my door Steve, I only live one floor away.”  
“Sorry, I guess I still don’t really know how to act around dames- I mean women”  
he rambled a bit. Darcy cut him off, gently kissing the corner of his mouth.  
“Goodnight Steve.”  
“Night Darce” Steve grinned. The elevator doors closed between them and they both headed for their suites with ridiculous smiles on their faces.  
Darcy woke up early the next morning to find a text from Jane telling her not to bother coming to work and she replied that’d she would come over for lunch to say hi to Thor. Grateful for the day off from science Darcy put one of her records on and started to get dressed. She had just finished rolling up her stockings when she heard a knock on her door. When she answered, she found Steve standing in her doorway and he seemed very flustered for some reason. Apparently he came over to ask her to lunch, and she wanted to kick herself for already making plans with Jane and Thor. It wasn’t until after he left that it occurred to her to make plans for another day, but at that point it was too little too late.  
When Darcy opened her door Steve turned beet red; he knew it was still somewhat early, but he certainly hadn’t expected to see her in only her stockings and an oversized Captain America t-shirt. He fumbled for words and somehow managed to ask her to lunch and when she turned him down he left, dejected. In the elevator he smacked the floor number for the gym, just barely remembering to hold back his strength. As usual, he headed straight for the punching bag after taping up his hands. Steve was so focused on beating his frustration out of the bag that he didn’t even noticed Bucky walking up behind him.  
“You alright punk?” Steve was so started that he missed the bag and it slipped and hit him. “You didn’t have to hit yourself, you could’ve just said no.” Ignoring him, Steve went back to hitting a steady rhythm into the punching bag. “So I take it things didn’t go so well with Darcy?”  
“Not really, no” he gritted his teeth. “She doesn’t want anything to do with me, ok Buck? So just leave it alone.” Bucky just rolled his eyes and walked away. He knew better than to push Steve when he got like this, but he also knew better than to think that Darcy was anything other than head over heels for his buddy. For some stupid reason, they were just too blind to see what was right in front of them.

As Bucky predicted, they both of them spent the rest of the day moping around the tower. Just before lunchtime, he finally decided he couldn’t take it anymore. He knew Darcy spent most of her time in the labs so he tried to time it so that he could get Steve down there right as she’d be checking on Dr. Banner.  
“Hey Doc” she greeted him. “I just thought I’d bring you some tea” she placed his favorite green tea next to him.  
“Dr. Banner? Bucky said you needed me for something?” Darcy spun around to find Steve looming in the doorway, pointedly ignoring her.  
“I don’t think I do” Bruce seemed confused. Bucky, taking advantage of the confusion shoved both Steve and Darcy into the Hulk containment room and locked the door behind them.  
“Sorry about this Stevie, but it’s for your own good. Dr. Banner, I hope you don’t mind” Bucky apologized, a flicker of his pre-winter soldier charm coming out.  
“That’s fine, I was about to get some lunch anyways.” Realizing no one was going to let them out anytime soon, Darcy plopped onto the floor and checked her pockets for her Starkphone or her iPod, but came up empty. After several minutes of silence, Darcy gave up and decided that they needed to get this conversation over with.  
“So any idea why Bucky decided to lock us in here?” Steve didn’t even look at her, he just shrugged, still focused on the door. “Ok, I don’t know what your problem is, but since last night went really well I’m assuming this has something to do with you asking me to lunch this morning” Darcy was getting fed up. “And I’m sorry that I had plans, but it’s not my fault Thor decided to show up” she started raising her voice. Rather than let Steve know just how hurt she was feeling, she tried to mask it as frustration and anger instead.  
“Wait, Thor’s back? That’s why you were busy?”  
“Yeah, he just got back this morning, but what does that have to do with anything?”  
“Doll, I thought that was just an excuse.” At this point they were both standing and Darcy suddenly realized just how close they were again. Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, Steve leaned down and kissed her softly.  
“It’s about damn time punk” Bucky stood outside the glass door with his arms crossed. If he hadn’t been unlocking the door Darcy might’ve been tempted to smack the shit-eating grin off his face, but she figured it was worth ignoring just this once. And if she happened to taser him next time, well who could really blame her?

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone was wondering what some of the 40's slang meant, here are the translations (I don't know why, but for a while there I got stuck in 40's mode)  
> Cookie: cute girl  
> Fuddy-duddy: old fashioned  
> Dead-hoofer: poor dancer


End file.
